Beckenham Place in the County of Kent, from Edward Hasted's, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vols. 1-3
1778
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Book: 17 5/16 × 11 × 13/16 in. (44 × 28 × 2 cm) Sheet: 16 15/16 × 10 5/8 in. (43 × 27 cm) Plate: 10 1/16 × 14 in. (25.5 × 35.5 cm)
Classification
Books
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Bonnie and Manuel Schonhorn, 2014
Accession Number
2014.599.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
This etching and engraving by John Bayly captures Beckenham Place, a stately country house in Kent, as part of Edward Hasted’s ambitious multi-volume *History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent* (1778–1799). Hasted’s work remains one of the most detailed Georgian-era surveys of English county life, documenting estates, churches, and landscapes at a time when Britain’s landed gentry were reshaping the countryside. The print’s inclusion of grazing cows alongside the architecture highlights the era’s ideal of the picturesque estate, where productive farmland and elegant residence exis...